Alumni
Our Alumni
David Wainer '03, Journalist
Where do you live at the moment?
Brooklyn, NY
What is your current profession and where do you work? How did you come to work in this field?
I'm a journalist writing about the United Nations and international politics for Bloomberg News. I got started by moving to Israel immediately after college and reporting from there as a freelancer.
What educational path did you follow?
I studied business at Boston University but realized I wanted to do something that got me truly excited every morning to go to work.
What is most rewarding about the work you do? What are the challenges?
It's rewarding to meet interesting diplomats from all over the world and be at the center of important diplomatic stories. A major challenge is you have to constantly have your finger on the pulse of the news, know what's important and what to look for in order to break new ground.
What is one essential academic or life skill you honed at Scheck Hillel?
The importance of community and people. Most jobs and most significant undertakings depend on circles of people. You can't get anything done in isolation. At Hillel, there was a strong emphasis on community, on being connected both to our smaller world in Aventura/North Miami Beach as well as to our bigger Jewish world.
What is your advice for future Hillel students who might consider a career in your field?
Journalism is undergoing lots of changes and it's a challenging field to be in at the moment. But if you have a fire in your belly, it's also a truly exciting industry to be a part of.
What is the last book you read/podcast you heard that taught you something you didn’t know before?
"The Great Reversal." It shows that while America used to be a place that fostered competition/capitalism, in recent decades the growth of lobbying and lax rules governing campaign finance have hurt governance and regulation. Massive mergers have led to high levels of concentration. The result is that Europe, paradoxically, is more capitalistic than the U.S., benefiting European consumers.
